Research overview

Friedrich Koenig is leading research in the field of quantum optics and quantum information, in particular quantum optics in curved spacetime. The main aim is the realisation of new nonlinear processes in optical fibers using instabilities of ultrashort optical pulses which produce novel sources of light, both classically as well as for novel quantum states. These instabilities are for example the fiber-optical Cherenkov radiation or the analogue of an event horizon in fibers.

In particular, few-cycle pulses in fibers offer the unique possibility to discover the physics of Hawking radiation in the laboratory. The observation of pair production from event horizons in fibers would allow us to learn about the fundamental process responsible for the mass distribution in the universe today, in a dispersive toy model in our laboratory. Moreover, the Hawking effect is at the heart of any theory explaining the connection between quantum mechanics, gravitation, and thermodynamics, the physics of the very small, the very big, and the physics of every day.